NEWS

The calendars we have hanging on our walls and present on our cell phones are reminders of time that passes daily. However, the Christian calendar offers an alternative measure of time. The “new year” starts not with the arrival of January but with the First Sunday in Advent in late November or early December.

Advent comes just in time for the Christmas “rush” when “Jingle Bells” and the countdown of shopping days are constant reminders of an impending deadline. The season of Advent’s message is “Get ready, get set, stop.”  Advent is a time of waiting and preparation. The journey to a waiting manger is no race but a slow walk where we are cautioned to pay attention and listen to ancient words of a reminder that proclaims, “Prepare the way of the Lord.”

Advent always begins in the “wilderness” with the words of a strangely dressed prophet named John who each year cries, “make a way in the wilderness.”  There are many forms of wilderness; too many presents not enough money, illnesses not wanted, grief not welcomed, or longings and wishes that it was really “the most wonderful time of the year.”

Advent offers an alternative way to approach Christmas if we will but pay attention, read scriptures that help us get ready, and pause in silence to remember that God will come again in a barn out back. “Prepare the way of the Lord;” it’s Advent.